Google’s latest “fake news” oversight sounds even worse when spoken aloud.

Barack Obama conspiracy theories, brought to you by Google Home

During the initial dustup over “fake news,” Google and its parent company Alphabet got less flack for spreading hoaxes than social media platforms like Facebook and Reddit. This week, the search giant is taking its lumps.First: Buzz Feed explained how Alphabet-owned YouTube became the “engine” of false conspiracy theories like Pizza-gate. Strike one.

Second: Search Engine Land editor Danny Sullivan noticed that Google was passing off right-wing paranoia as the promoted answer to questions like, “Is Obama planning a coup?” and, “Is Obama planning martial law?” Strike two.


(For those not in the loop, “FFS” isn’t a technical term. It stands for “for fuck’s sake.”) 
Those bogus search results are also served up as fact on Google’s virtual assistant, Google Home. Unlike a normal page of search results, Google Home doesn’t tell you where its answer came from or give you the option to see other answers.

Here’s a video of BBC tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones getting the same ludicrous answer out of his Google Home:

Steeerrrrrike three! Recode reached out to Google for comment. We’ll update this story if we hear back from them. In the meantime, I asked my Amazon Echo Dot, “Alexei, is Obama planning a coup?”

“Hmm,” Alexa said. “I can’t find the answer to the question I heard.”